Texas court orders Microsoft to stop selling Word

A Texas court has told Microsoft to stop selling Word, after concluding
the popular software package infringes a patent owned by a Canadian
company.

Toronto-based company i4i sued Redmond over the issue five years ago,
arguing that Word violated its 1998 patent for a document system with
automated formating code embedding.

A jury in Texas found Microsoft had infringed i4i's patents and ordered
it to pay $200 million in damages. However, on Tuesday judge Leonard
Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Texas issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Microsoft
from selling Word or any product that uses the disputed technology in
the United States.

Microsoft was also ordered to pay an additional $40 million for willful
infringement, and $37 in interest. Microsoft has 60 days to comply with
the injunction.